Ballast Point Pier and the Blue Crab
Dear Janice, Well, the thing that made this so intriguing and kind of scary is that even though your dad was always so rugged and William Holdenie, I had never seen him do anything like this before. He was always so easy going and the wise problem solver. I guess because my dad was older and so busy raising six children when I was little that your dad was as much like a father to me as he was an older brother. He was twenty when I was born. His temperament was more like when he sat in the lawn chair in your back yard with the garden hose running while you practiced twirling the fire batons or lifting me up when I was five, sitting on the palm of his hand so I could touch the living room ceiling.

Anyway, one sunny day your dad went fishing off of the Ballast Point Pier. Andy and I went with him. I guess I was about ten and Andy was twelve. There were quite a few other people fishing off the pier as well that day. While we were there your dad brought up a beautiful blue crab. You know how I was about seeing any kind of animals up close and of course I felt sorry for it trying to get away. I begged your dad "Can we let it go?! Pleeeeease." and so was Andy. Of course, he said "Sure." and released the crab there on the pier making sure we didn't get peenched. A fisherman standing next to us, a gruff, burly type guy, said "No, don't let it go. It'll make good bait !" But we continued to plead for it's life like Pocahontas throwing herself across the bonds that held John Smith. The four of us watched as the crab reached the edge of the pier and just as it was about to jump over the edge the guy's big foot came down holding the crab in place. I heard "The boys want to let it go." as I saw the guy's feet come up off of the pier about two feet high. I looked up and your dad had him by the front of the shirt holding him up in the air. It was just like in a movie.

Another quick story that happened on that same pier to your dad. He had just gotten a brand new deep sea rod and reel and was fishing off the end of the pier. He looked down and there was one of those big four inch long yellow grasshoppers in the water drowning. Your dad, feeling sorry for it, kept moving the line around until the grasshopper grabbed onto it and climbed up until it got to the tip of the rod. Then it real fast jumped to the center of the rod and then hopped right into the middle of your dad's chest. He instantly threw the rod and reel as far as he could away from him. He watched it sink to the bottom and he could see it laying down there under the water. He got another line and hooks and sinkers and after hours of trying finally got his rod and reel back. These are the stories of Ballast Point Pier sometimes known as "Fish Gut Pier".

Lynn